The time has come at last to reflect on the grand adventure that was the three day novel contest. I’m going to do only minimal editing on this post to give an unfiltered reaction.
For those of you not following on Facebook I’m sure you’re wondering; did I succeed? Did I actually finish the story in three days?
Yes. Yes I did. Cue the grand trumpets of victory.
The next question no doubt on everyone’s mind; is the book any good? Well, that isn’t as easy a question to answer. Certainly it isn’t as good as something that I would have taken more time on, but is it bad enough to be bad? Good enough to be good? In the midst of writing it I briefly became convinced it was total rubbish and almost gave up a few times but pressed through. Now I’m just thoroughly unsure and, to be honest, I haven’t as yet had the courage to go back and read it for myself. A close friend is in the process of reading it to help determine its place on the Terrible/Awesome spectrum.
For the most part the contest went about as I expected, however there were some surprising things that came my way, such as how physically exhausting writing for 12 hours at a go can actually be. The mental exhaustion I expected. After a while it was all I could do to keep my mind focused on my moving my fingers in their designated paths and hope the words forming in the crucible of my mind actually ended up on the page in a coherent manner. But the physical exhaustion, or rather the extent of it, came as something of a surprise.
For those who have been following the 3-Day novel posts (see the first, second and third here) you probably want to know how my experiment with using the story treatment to help me write the story went down. Was I able to write it without becoming slave to it or letting it hamper me? I’d say I succeeded fairly well on that front. There were places where the writing revealed that a scene was better placed elsewhere than where I’d originally intended it, and parts of the book ended up having greater emotional punch as a result…at least it seemed that way in the course of the writing. Again, I haven’t as yet gone back and read it myself. I also found that, out of necessity, there were multiple sequences throughout the book that ended up being condensed and executed with a lot of brevity in order to realistically make the deadline achievable. As such, some of the scenes in the book probably don’t come off as well as they otherwise would have because they lack the detail and breadth of action and description that might otherwise have taken place. However there was one point when disaster struck and the story treatment proved invaluable. Namely, when about 13,000 words in I realized I had forgotten to write a vitally important scene I had planned for. As in, the ending would have made zero sense at all without this scene. Thankfully, since I was consulting the treatment periodically to make sure I was on track, I realized the error in time to go back and fix it while it would still be relatively easy to do so…only to then discover that my mind had been doing me a solid because that scene actually made a lot more sense later in the book anyway. Still, the preparation of the story treatment proved invaluable in not only keeping me on task with the writing but helping me over bumps encountered along the way.
Did I like the experience enough to continue using the story treatment as a development tool? Yes, I think so. At the very least I am going to give a try on a couple more stories. I get the feeling that story treatments are a writing tool that need to be practiced with to perfect so I don’t think I utilized it to its full potential this time out.
How did the characters turn out? I think they turned out alright. Well, my main two anyway. A lot of my supporting cast were caricatures, pretty much a necessity given the time constraint as I had to focus on my mains. My male protagonist ended up a bit more of a useless in a fight bookworm than I’d thought he would be, but I think it worked with his female love interest, a gun toting journalist on a mission to expose wrongdoing in her city. In all honesty the woman is the real hero of the story even though the man is the point of view character. I got to flip an old story type on its head at one point, which is always fun. Namely, instead of the “somewhat timid woman steps into the action to save her man who is the real hero” narrative we sometimes see in books and film, this story has a “somewhat timid man steps into the action to save his woman who is the real hero” sequence, which made me rather happy. Particularly when, during the rescue attempt, the man freezes and the woman ends up saving him during the mission to rescue her.
I suppose there’s one other big question some people might have. Do I intend to do anything with this book now that its finished? Publish it or expand it into a full-length novel perhaps? (yes, while the story is complete at 25,740 words it is not, despite the contest’s name, technically long enough to be a full novel. What did you expect, it was written in three days!) The answer is a resounding I have no idea whatsoever. If the book isn’t complete rubbish and possibly worth doing some extra work on (and I’m sure a ton of work is needed to get it even remotely publishable) then I might consider putting in the time. However, if the book doesn’t prove to be worth any further effort I won’t be sad. The point of this endeavor for me was to finish. To finally silence that nagging voice from the past wondering what could have been with this story, wanting to finally know how it ends. I’ve completed a successful draft, the story such as it is finished at last, if certainly not polished.
Will I ever do this again? Oof. Man, I don’t know. Maybe.We’ll have to see how I feel next year. I think it was a worthy experiment but I’m a bit dubious as to its usefulness as a productivity tool. Perhaps a three-month novel contest might be a more appropriate way to go if I want to actually release the book? Or maybe I’ll finally read this one for myself and think its amazing and decide to write all of my books this way. Who knows.
If nothing else I have gained from this contest one very important thing. A huge confidence boost. From a productivity perspective this experience gave me the push I’ve been needing for a while. I now know I can still produce a huge amount of material in a relatively short time if I need/want, and applying that confidence over time rather than in 3-Day bursts should help me power through future writing projects on a much better timeline.
Were any of you doing the 3-Day Novel contest alongside me? How did it go? Has my experience inspired any of you to take on the challenge next year? Discuss in the comments!
